


twin machines built to never get fixed

by transfinn



Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, everyone else is there too but passing mentions this is really about Molly and caleb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-25
Updated: 2018-02-25
Packaged: 2019-03-23 09:42:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13784829
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/transfinn/pseuds/transfinn
Summary: "Caleb."Everything is burning."Caleb!"





	twin machines built to never get fixed

**Author's Note:**

> set in an unspecified point in the future. i love these two a lot. liam and taliesin give us the relationship we deserve in this year 20gayteen
> 
> title from [twin machines](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4SUB4bmK_Nw)

_Burning._

"Caleb."

_Everything is burning._

"Caleb!"

_He reaches out to try to save him, and his hand burns._

"Caleb!!" A slap, and Caleb gasps.

_His everything, his world, all that he cares for. Burning. Screaming._

"Caleb?" That voice is smaller, more scared.

_He can't save them._

"Hey. Caleb!" Two slaps, one after the other, on either side of his face.

Caleb blinks hard, trying to pull himself away from the fire.

Hot hands cup his face and Caleb flinches but doesn't pull back.

"Caleb." It's Mollymauk in front of him, it was probably Molly calling his name and slapping him before. "Are you here?"

Caleb can't get his eyes to focus beyond Molly's face. He can see shapes behind Molly, green and blue and tan. Had everyone else witnessed his flashback? What had even triggered it in the first place? He was beyond these happening randomly, even mostly beyond them happening when his triggers arose.

"Ja." Caleb blinks again. "Yes"

"Good, good." Molly rests his forehead against Caleb's, eyes closing.

"You scared us." Nott's voice pipes up from where she sits beside Caleb, one of his hands in her lap.

"I..." Caleb's voice catches in his throat.

_"You're scaring me." A voice, soft._

Caleb can't breathe.

_"You need to eat, you need to sleep." A touch on his shoulder._

"No, no, Caleb, stay with us."

_"Firebolt, huh?" A kiss to the top of his head. "Want to show me?"_

"Caleb, I know it's hard to stay, but you have to fight. I believe in you."

_Burning._

_Burning._

_**Burning.** _

"Try slapping him again." Someone else.

That's Jester. Caleb tries to focus her name in his head. The present will keep him here.

"Caleb." Molly's eyes. "Stay."

"Feuer." Caleb says.

"I know, I know. Just stay with us."

_His everything is burning._

The noise that gets itself out of Caleb's throat is one of anguish, of pain, of sorrow. It makes Nott whimper.

"I know, I know, I know. Shh, just stay here." Molly hasn't moved his hands from Caleb's cheeks, hasn't moved his forehead away from Caleb's.

"Caleb." Jester takes Caleb's free hand. "I don't really know what you're feeling, but... Please? Stay?"

Caleb can't tear his eyes away from Molly. There's solace in the purple, in the tattoo across his face and neck. There's grounding in their contact points and in the two different beings holding his hands. 

"You okay?" Molly asks. 

"Ja." Caleb says weakly. He's shaking now, tension drained out of him. His body tries to shatter apart without it. 

"Do you need anything?" That's Fjord's voice, shaken and worried but deep and comforting nonetheless. 

"Yeah, I mean..." Beau's voice isn't unwelcome either. "We could get you food. Or water."

"Or beer." Yasha adds. 

"Nein, ich..." 'don't want to be an inconvenience' dies on his tongue. 

"I know." Molly says. "Do you need to be alone?"

Caleb nods, slowly, even though he wants Molly's warmth forever. 

He stays looking at Molly as everyone shifts to move out of the room, Jester letting go of his hand, Nott hopping off the bed.

"Do you want me to stay?" Molly asks. He's so very gentle.

Caleb nods again. 

He hears the door click shut a moment later.

"Come on, lie down." Mollys voice is mostly back to the usual gruffness. Caleb does what he's told, lying down on the bed he didn't even realize he'd been sitting on.

It doesn't take long for Molly to lie next to him, moving Caleb slightly so that there's room for both of them side by side, facing each other. Molly cups the back of Caleb's head, pulling him to that his forehead rests against Molly's bare chest. Mollys other arm crosses Caleb's torso and holds him close. "This okay?"

"Ja." Caleb is almost reminded of fire, of burning, but Molly is too nice and the holding is too comforting for him to really fall back and away. 

"Want me to tell you about what happened to me?" Molly tangles Caleb's hair around his fingers. "So that you feel less alone."

Caleb nods. Molly is warm, and that's kind of overtaking his exhausted brain. 

"When the carnival took me in, I wasn't much of anything." The slight waver in Molly's voice betrays his trauma. "I'd been affected by this spell, feeblemind, you might've heard of it."

Caleb winces, hard.

"Yeah." Molly laughs, a kind of bitter laughter that leaves the same taste in Caleb's mouth. "By the time I recovered, I'd forgotten a lot of who I was. I didn't speak even after I regained the ability to, but it was still clear I'd recovered. I just had to build myself up again." Molly pauses. Caleb listens to his breathing. "I don't remember what happened for me to deserve that spell. I don't remember a lot of my past. A lot of what I remember is pain."

Caleb grabs the fabric of Molly's shirt. 

"I don't know what happened to you. I don't really know what happened to me. But i have a lot of issues with flashbacks too. Usually they're not as intense, but... sometimes they can be. I'll help you, you help me if you want. Deal?"

"Ja." 

Molly gently kisses the top of Caleb's head. "Sleep. Recover. You'll feel better rested."

Caleb sleeps, enveloped in the warmth and love of Molly.

**Author's Note:**

> Caleb deserve love and also Molly cuddles so that's what he gets


End file.
